Airtel to invest $50mn in Uganda
- Published on 21 June 2012
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Airtel Uganda plans to invest $50 million in upgrading its existing mobile network, following pressure on telcos in that country to meet quality of service obligations.
According to the company, the aim of the investment is to build on its information technology (IT) infrastructure, as well as establishing better customer service software systems.
Airtel Uganda poured $100 million in its operations in 2011, aimed at stabilising its network operations, amid concerns over network coverage and dropped calls.
The investments have come after Bharti Airtel took over Zain Uganda and rebranded it to Airtel.
“Much of the investment was directed to sustaining a robust network roll out in only ten months since our takeover and coming to the market, we installed an additional 3000 sites in three hundred days to cover over 90 percent of the population across both urban and rural environments,” said Joseph Kanyamunyu, the Airtel Uganda’s spokesperson.
The Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) showed said that of all phone calls made on the telco providers, 4.70% were registered as dropped calls.
Uganda has seven telecom companies, including MTN Uganda, Bharti Airtel, Uganda Telecom, Warid Telecom, Orange, i-Tel and Simba Telecoms, according to BuddeComm research.
